HISTORY OF PASCO COUNTY
Bailey’s Bluff & Emma Stirling
researched by Lori Oschefski & Robert Wilkinson
April 17, 1900. A newspaper reports, “Rev. J. C. Porter returned Monday from Tarpon Springs, where he held services Sunday. An important feature of the day was a trip to the gulf, six miles down the Anclote river, at its mouth, where a building was dedicated for religious worship, for the use of the sponge fishermen of that important rendezvous. One hundred sponge boats were present with 1000 persons to take part in the exercises. Miss Sterling of Philadelphia was the prime mover in securing this building and assisted in dedicating it to the spiritual welfare of the sponge wayfarers of the gulf. The sponge industry is in a flourishing condition and the returns are large.”
1902. A document, “An Account of the Pavilion Church and Reading Room for Sponge Fishermen, both white and colored, on the Gulf of Mexico at Bailey’s Bluff, Pasco County, Florida, founded by Emma M. Stirling, March 1900,” is published. Emma M. Stirling (1838-1907) was a Scottish woman who wintered in Tampa.
April 15, 1902. The Tampa Morning Tribune reports:
Miss Emma Stirling, whom many in the city already know through her work with bands of mercy, has recently returned to Tampa from a visit to Tarpon Springs. At that place she has put up a pavilion church and reading room for the sponge fishermen. The building is 75x50 feet in size and the permanent tables, chairs, and benches are just now being put in. The building is well insured. It is located at Bailey’s Bluff. The ground about it has been cleared, flowers are to be grown, and the spot will be very attractive. Now gifts of papers and magazines that have been read are asked for, and a place to which they can be sent will be decided upon. Miss Stirling will pay the necessary expense of postage and express. At one place where such a request was made the lady says that people must have emptied their houses of every scrap of literature that could be spared, and a fine amount was collected. It is a good work and will probably meet a friendly response. Other adornment of the building will be placards ordered by the lady from New York, bearing the “Apostle’s Creed,” “Ten Commandments,” “Lord’s Prayer,” “Beatitudes” and “Twenty-third Psalm.” Mr. A. E. Drew will superintend the work now, though it is union in character.
Jan. 13, 1903. The Tampa Morning Tribune mentions that Miss Stirling established “a Church Pavilion and Reading Room for the sponge fishermen at Bailey’s Bluff, Pasco county, which is a great pleasure and benefit to the men for whom it was built.”
April 21, 1904. In “Fifty Years of a Sponge Fisher’s Life,” The Independent, April 21, 1904, Carlos Barker writes:
But the Pavilion? It was Miss Stirling that got that for us. She was down here spending her first winter, when she used to visit the kraals and the Bluff, and see how lonesome and dull the men were on Saturdays and Sundays; nowhere to go, nothing to do when we were through cleaning. Just sleeping on our boats at night, and in the day-time, if it wasn’t work, just loafing around our sponge-piles, or the keeper’s shack, till it was time to start on another week’s round.
The first thing we knew, Miss Stirling had started a fund for a Pavilion up here above the kraals. She put in a good deal of money herself, and got some from people a long way off, then some from the boat-owners in Key West and other ports. When the building was well begun she came among us for contributions, and we gave her whatever we could. She gives us credit for helping lots. That was three winters ago. In a few months it was finished up, and you see now we’ve got something to be proud of and enjoy forever. Why, I expect my children’s children to get good out of that Pavilion.
You don’t wonder I like to say it over and over, “Thank God, they built the Pavilion in my day!”
May 19, 1905. The Tampa Morning Tribune carries an appeal from Miss Stirling “in behalf of the Pavilion church and reading-room for sponge fishermen at Bailey’ Bluff on the Gulf of Mexico.’ (Frances Mallett recalls that the pavilion was still standing in the early 1930s.)
1902. A document, “An Account of the Pavilion Church and Reading Room for Sponge Fishermen, both white and colored, on the Gulf of Mexico at Bailey’s Bluff, Pasco County, Florida, founded by Emma M. Stirling, March 1900,” is published. Emma M. Stirling (1838-1907) was a Scottish woman who wintered in Tampa.
April 15, 1902. The Tampa Morning Tribune reports:
Miss Emma Stirling, whom many in the city already know through her work with bands of mercy, has recently returned to Tampa from a visit to Tarpon Springs. At that place she has put up a pavilion church and reading room for the sponge fishermen. The building is 75x50 feet in size and the permanent tables, chairs, and benches are just now being put in. The building is well insured. It is located at Bailey’s Bluff. The ground about it has been cleared, flowers are to be grown, and the spot will be very attractive. Now gifts of papers and magazines that have been read are asked for, and a place to which they can be sent will be decided upon. Miss Stirling will pay the necessary expense of postage and express. At one place where such a request was made the lady says that people must have emptied their houses of every scrap of literature that could be spared, and a fine amount was collected. It is a good work and will probably meet a friendly response. Other adornment of the building will be placards ordered by the lady from New York, bearing the “Apostle’s Creed,” “Ten Commandments,” “Lord’s Prayer,” “Beatitudes” and “Twenty-third Psalm.” Mr. A. E. Drew will superintend the work now, though it is union in character.
Jan. 13, 1903. The Tampa Morning Tribune mentions that Miss Stirling established “a Church Pavilion and Reading Room for the sponge fishermen at Bailey’s Bluff, Pasco county, which is a great pleasure and benefit to the men for whom it was built.”
April 21, 1904. In “Fifty Years of a Sponge Fisher’s Life,” The Independent, April 21, 1904, Carlos Barker writes:
But the Pavilion? It was Miss Stirling that got that for us. She was down here spending her first winter, when she used to visit the kraals and the Bluff, and see how lonesome and dull the men were on Saturdays and Sundays; nowhere to go, nothing to do when we were through cleaning. Just sleeping on our boats at night, and in the day-time, if it wasn’t work, just loafing around our sponge-piles, or the keeper’s shack, till it was time to start on another week’s round.
The first thing we knew, Miss Stirling had started a fund for a Pavilion up here above the kraals. She put in a good deal of money herself, and got some from people a long way off, then some from the boat-owners in Key West and other ports. When the building was well begun she came among us for contributions, and we gave her whatever we could. She gives us credit for helping lots. That was three winters ago. In a few months it was finished up, and you see now we’ve got something to be proud of and enjoy forever. Why, I expect my children’s children to get good out of that Pavilion.
You don’t wonder I like to say it over and over, “Thank God, they built the Pavilion in my day!”
May 19, 1905. The Tampa Morning Tribune carries an appeal from Miss Stirling “in behalf of the Pavilion church and reading-room for sponge fishermen at Bailey’ Bluff on the Gulf of Mexico.’ (Frances Mallett recalls that the pavilion was still standing in the early 1930s.)
Pavilion Church and Reading Room
It was in use by sponge fishermen in the early 1900s at Bailey’s Bluff
ghs1922's photostream
Outdoor sponge auction at Bailey's Bluff ca. 1902. Notice the building in the background obscured by trees, believed to be the Pavillion Church and Reading Room. Credit: Courtesy, Florida State Archives
The Pavillion Church and Reading Room c1924
